Four players that led Sonoma State’s volleyball team to a national ranking and a second straight NCAA tournament appearance earned All-California Collegiate Athletic Association honors.

Keala Peterson was named to the all-conference first team. Lindsay Brown, Taylor Krenwinkel, and Ally Sather earned second team recognition.

A transfer from UC Davis, Peterson had 401 kills to set a single season team mark for second-year players. The sophomore from Sebastopol averaged 4.18 kills per set, and helped out defensively with 260 digs, leading the team with 13 double-doubles.

Brown, a senior from Napa, earned second team all-conference honors for the third consecutive year. Her 1,108 assists set up Peterson and Sather as one of the conference’s top pair of hitters up front. Brown’s 3,619 career assists is a Seawolves’ record, and she also holds the career service aces mark with 147.

Krenwinkel was Sonoma State’s top defender, leading the conference in digs per set.

The sophomore from San Diego totaled 539 digs — 4.73 per set – and added 31 service aces this season.

Leading the team in kills, Sather’s 442 winners set the new mark for a Seawolves’ first year player. The freshman from Santa Rosa recorded 3.98 kills per set.

Sonoma State placed five Seawolves on the NCAA Division II West Region men’s and women’s soccer teams.

Leading the men were first team selections goalkeeper Brook Johnson, Davis, and defenders Ryan Hall, Trabuco Canyon, and Stuart Gallant, Coronado. Midfielder Cory Taufer, Clovis, received second team honors.

Former Sonoma Valley High School player Mickey Daly, a defender for Cal State Los Angeles, was named to the first team. Daly also played at Santa Rosa Junior College.

A senior, Johnson earned his second consecutive selection to the All-West Region first team, and also was an All-America Honorable Mention last year. He led the California Collegiate Athletic Association with 101 saves and was among the conference leaders with a 0.90 goals against average. Johnson recorded eight shutouts.

Hall, a junior, tied for second on the team with four goals and added an assist. Gallant, a senior, converted both penalty kicks for the Seawolves this season — both game winners. Taufer, a sophomore, assisted on two goals this season.

For the Seawolves women, Lindsay Catton earned NCAA Division II West Region first team honors for the second consecutive year.

The senior from Rohnert Park shared the team lead with 13 points this season while playing defender.

Basketball fans can gain insight into the Sonoma State University men’s and women’s basketball teams during a Thursday forum with the head coaches.

The Coach’s Corner program is set for 12 p.m. in the multipurpose room of the SSU Student Union Building, on the Rohnert Park Campus. The event is open to the public and there is no cost.

Seawolves men’s basketball coach Pat Fuscaldo and women’s coach Mark Rigby will discuss the upcoming basketball season, as well as last year’s highlights, what’s involved in recruiting and more.

The program was created to inform the campus community about the progress of Sonoma State athletic programs. Men’s soccer coach Marcus Ziemer was the featured speaker at last month’s first event.

For more information, call the Sonoma State Athletics Office 664-2521.

Rikki Buckshnis and Lindsay Brown, both seniors, were named to the team made up of schools from NCAA Division II and III, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, and the National Junior College Athletic Association.

Buckshnis, a managerial economics major from Clackamas, Ore., becomes the first Seawolves athlete to earn the recognition for a third straight year. As one of seven student-athletes named to the All-District VIII first team, Buckshnis advances to the Academic All-America ballot.

The Seawolves’ leading blocker with 65 blocks this season, Buckshnis has a .338 hitting percentage to rank fifth in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.

Brown, from Napa, has a double major in sociology and Spanish. She was named to the All-District VIII second team. The Seawolves’ all-time leader in assists and service aces, Brown ranks fifth in the conference in assists per set — 10.30 — and second in aces per set — 0.44 this season.

Sonoma State is 20-6 overall, 14-6 in the CCAA, and completes regular season play with matches at UC San Diego on Friday and Cal State East Bay on Saturday.

The Seawolves rank 18th in the nation and third in the NCAA West Region. The top eight teams from each region make up the 64-team tournament.

The Sonoma State women hope to make their second consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament and third since 1991.

Sather, from Santa Rosa, also earned recognition Thursday for her classroom work when ESPN The Magazine named her to its Academic All-District Third Team.

The conference player of the week honor was Sather’s first after posting a pair of double-doubles – giving her a dozen on the season.

Sather tied for the team lead with 11 kills and recorded 12 digs against Cal in a 3-1 match win. Helping the Bruins snap an 18-match losing streak to Stanford in a 3-2 win, Sather again tied for the team lead, with 14 kills, and her team-high 20 digs was just one short of her career best.

An outside hitter, Sather is second on the Bruins with 2.72 kills per set and 3.05 digs per set.

Recently Sather became just the 12th player in UCLA history to surpass 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs.

The Maria Carrillo graduate and former Empire Volleyball Club standout is a history major with an education minor at UCLA. She is set to graduate this semester.

In her years at UCLA, Sather has earned a 3.72 cumulative grade point average, twice being chosen to Pac-10 All-Academic Teams. To qualify, student athletes must carry a 3.30 GPA, play in at least 50 percent of a team’s matches, and be at least a sophomore academically.

ESPN The Magazine has now selected Sather twice to one of its academic teams. She also was recognized in 2007.

Sonoma State University men’s soccer team faces a difficult challenge to repeat as conference champions, needing to first beat top seed Cal State Los Angeles in today’s second semifinal of the California Collegiate Athletic Association’s tournament.

The Seawolves received the fourth seed in the four-team event hosted by Cal State Stanislaus, in Turlock. Ranked No. 16 nationally and second in the west region, SSU won the conference’s north division title. But the Seawolves finished with one less point in league play compared with the other semifinalists, Cal State San Bernardino and Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Still, the Seawolves have ample experience in the conference tournament with today’s game marking a seventh consecutive appearance. SSU also defeated Cal State Los Angeles in the teams’ only meeting this season. While the Seawolves beat Cal State San Bernardino, they lost to Cal State Dominguez Hills, the defending NCAA Division II champion.

Today’s winners faceoff for the championship Sunday at 2 p.m. in Turlock.

Should SSU win its third conference title and finish atop the west region rankings, the team would host a regional tournament. The SSU men last hosted NCAA regional play in 2002 when the Seawolves went on to win the national championship.

Leading this year’s squad are six players named Thursday to the All-CCAA teams.

Senior goalkeeper Brook Johnson, from Davis, and sophomore midfielder Cory Taufer, of Clovis, received first team honors.

Selected to the second all-conference team were sophomore midfielders, Trevor Hurst, from Santa Rosa, and Cam Vickers, of Lake Tapps, Wash. Honorable mentions went to senior defender Stuart Gallant, Coronado, and sophomore defender Ryan Hall, Trabuco Canyon.

On the women’s side, SSU placed senior defender Lindsay Catton, of Rohnert Park, on the All-CCAA first team.

Receiving honorable mention honors were senior forward Tracy Webster, from Sebastopol, and sophomore midfielder Katie Parucha, of Manhattan Beach.

The Seawolves ended their season Sunday with a 2-1 victory over visiting Humboldt State, taking their record to 8-9-3 record overall and 6-7-3 in the CCAA. The SSU women tied for second place in the north division, but were sixth in points during CCAA league play.

Lockert placed ninth at the West Coast Conference championships on Saturday – second for Loyola – to help the Lions to a second place finish heading into the west region meet in Eugene, Ore., on Nov. 14.

Setting a Loyola freshman record for the 8 kilometer Crystal Springs course in Belmont, Lockert finished in 25:32, just 20 seconds behind the league’s top first-year runner, Lars Erik Malde of Portland. Lockert was a mere 2 seconds behind the Loyola school record for the course.

By finishing in the top 10, Lockert earned All-WCC First Team honors.

Loyola’s performance bumped up the Lions to 13^th in the NCAA West Region rankings, after sitting 15^th the previous two weeks.

“We had a very successful day, with our top five on both the men’s and women’s side in the top fifteen for the first time in school history it shows we still ran really well. We also walked away with another freshman of the year in Sheree Shea while Sterling Lockert was equally deserving,” Coach Scott Guerrero said in a release on the Loyola athletics website.

Lockert has been a top runner for Loyola, consistently improving his times in the handful of meets leading to the league and region finals. First-year college runners face the challenge of racing over eight kilometer courses compared with shorter high school distances, such as the five kilometer CIF State Cross Country Championships that Lockert ran for Petaluma.

A highlight was leading the pack of Lions at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival in Fayetteville, Ark., one of the nation’s top invitational races. Lockert finished 31st in a field of 194 and Loyola was sixth among 29 teams, including several nationally ranked squads.

On Saturday, Lockert was the Lions’ top finisher in the college race at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival in Fayetteville, Ark., one of the nation’s top invitational races. Lockert finished 31^st in a field of 194 and Loyola was sixth among 29 teams. The teams ahead of the Lions included the winner, No. 4 Oklahoma State, followed by No. 23 Oklahoma and No. 25 Arkansas.

Lockert has steadily improved on already strong times for a freshman runner on the NCAA level. First-year college runners face the challenge of racing over eight kilometer courses compared with shorter high school distances, such as the five kilometer CIF State Cross Country Championships that Lockert ran for Petaluma.

In his first collegiate race at the UC Riverside Invitational a month ago, Lockert was the third Lions runner to cross the finish line, in 25:24 over the 8K distance.

A week later, Lockert ran second for the team as Loyola finished seventh against some top NCAA Division I teams at the Stanford Invitational, by far the Lions’ best ever finish at the meet. He finished 37^th in a time of 25:14 on the Stanford golf course route – the fastest freshman 8K in Loyola history.

Saturday’s meet, hosted by the University of Arkansas, showed Lockert and the Lions continue to pick up the pace as they prepare for the West Coast Conference championships. The race is Oct. 31 at Crystal Springs Cross Country Course, in Belmont, on the San Francisco Peninsula.

Loyola finished second to Portland in last year’s WCC finals. Going into this year’s campaign, the Lions tied for second with the University of San Francisco, behind Portland, in the WCC coaches’ preseason poll.

While Loyola has yet to break into the NCAA West Region rankings, the Lions look to develop a top program. Lockert is one of the building blocks.